Wilford Woodruff's Prophecy of William Douglass's Punishment

“I will relate one circumstance that occurred while I was on the Fox Islands. I was preaching in a school-house, and a Methodist minister, named William Douglass, came to the meeting. He had been sent for by a Baptist minister, named Gideon J. Newton, to come and put down 'Mormonism.' Mr. Douglass was a man of great physical strength, and he was very boisterous. He came into the meeting and commenced to abuse me and the principles I taught. He demanded that I should work a miracle. He said, 'I want you to work a miracle, that I may see it and believe.' I told him that I should not work a miracle; that I was not sent to work miracles for the gratification of wicked men; that the Lord had said that those who sought for signs were an adulterous generation. I told him that he was a wicked, boisterous man, and I felt moved upon by the Spirit of God to tell him that the curse of God would rest upon him, and that his wickedness would be made manifest in the eyes of the people. He left the meeting, and I continued my labors. Some years after this, I visited those islands again, and I learned that this man, William Douglass, had been guilty of a beastly crime, for which he was sentenced to the State prison for fourteen years. The other man, Mr. Newton, who had invited him there to put down the truth, had lost his influence, his congregation had left him, and he was reduced to the necessity of peddling small wares through the streets to get his daily bread. Thus the prophecy was fulfilled.”

— Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses 10:3